Antarctica sea ice melts to a record low

The Antarctic Ocean area covered by ice has shrunk to a record low, exposing the thicker ice shelves buttressing Antarctica's ground ice sheet to waves and warmer temperatures, scientists reported Thursday.

Historic Greenland ice sheet rainfall unraveled

For the first time ever recorded, in the late summer of 2021, rain fell on the high central region of the Greenland ice sheet. This extraordinary event was followed by the surface snow and ice melting rapidly. Researchers ...

2019 Arctic sea ice minimum tied for second lowest on record

The extent of Arctic sea ice at the end of this summer was effectively tied with 2007 and 2016 for second lowest since modern record keeping began in the late 1970s. An analysis of satellite data by NASA and the National ...

Warm winds in autumn could strain Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of Earth's coldest continent, making it particularly vulnerable to a changing global climate. Surface melting of snow and ice initiated the breakup of the peninsula's northernmost ...

How the Greenland ice sheet fared in 2018

The end of August traditionally marks the end of the melt season for the Greenland ice sheet as it shifts from mostly melting to mostly gaining snow.

Tracing subglacial water storage

Glaciers are essential to both human and animal health. In fact, 70 percent of the world's population consumes water that has some glacial input. It's important to understand how these icy giants operate, because they impact ...

Researchers take on atmospheric effects of Arctic snowmelt

Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute are exploring the changing chemistry of the Arctic's atmosphere to help answer the question of what happens as snow and ice begin to melt.

NASA scientists seek to improve sea ice predictions

Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is in a downward spiral, with summer minimum extents about 40 percent smaller than in the 1980s. But predicting how the sea ice is going to behave in a particular year is tricky: There are still ...

NASA study improves forecasts of summer Arctic sea ice

The Arctic has been losing sea ice over the past several decades as Earth warms. However, each year, as the sea ice starts to melt in the spring following its maximum wintertime extent, scientists still struggle to estimate ...

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